In the field of electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), there are many possible powertrains that may affect a wide variety of operating modes. For example, in the field of HEVs alone, HEV powertrains may be constructed to affect series, parallel, series-parallel modes of operation. In addition, certain of these modes may be constructed to operate according to different policies,—e.g., charge-sustaining, charge-depletion and the like.
These different modes and policies offer certain advantages—e.g., range extension, fuel efficiency, operation of the internal combustion engine (ICE) on its ideal-operating line (IOL). It would be desirable to have a single powertrain that may affect a plurality of these modes—possibly during different drive conditions and possibly with different policies, according to a desired drive characteristic metric, such as fuel efficiency, range extension, efficient battery usage or the like.
In addition, it may be desirable to have a hybrid electric powertrain configuration that has substantially the same form factor for conventional passenger cars and light-to-heavy-duty truck vehicle configurations. In such a case, the cost to produce advanced hybrid electric vehicles may be reduced by substitution without costly changes to the production line.